By Elizabeth Syson | Echo
The rollout of My Taylor University Degree heralds an end to stressful hours of pouring over course lists, adding up credits and scouring graduation requirements for tiny but vital details. This degree audit program, made available March 16, allows students to see their degree requirements and current progress at a glance.
"For quite some time, there's been dissatisfaction among students with the whole advising process," said Edwin Welch, director of institutional research and associate registrar. "We average that we have to return 50 percent of (graduation) applications because of errors."
Welch hopes that the new program will cut down on those errors by allowing students to see clearly all of their requirements before the time comes to submit graduation applications. The system should also change the way academic advising sessions are carried out.
"It allowed me to work quickly with my advisees to determine where they were in their degree program(s) and to figure out which classes they should take," said Tom Nurkkala, associate professor of computer science and engineering, who used the system last fall in a pilot group. "With DegreeWorks handling the details of degree progress, my hope is that there will be more time for communication, vocational advising and mentoring during advising sessions."
The program, which updates data every 24 hours, includes a color-coded list of which courses fulfill which requirements, a GPA calculator and a "What If" feature. Students can use the "What If" feature to see the exact requirements of a potential change in major or minor.
Another feature, which allows students to create four-year plans, is included in the program though it is not as well-developed as the audit features. According to Welch, it should be ready for use by fall 2014.Students in the Physics and Engineering Department have previously used a program called iGrad for advising and for creating four-year plans. This system, originally designed by Ken Kiers, department chair and professor of physics, was further developed by Nurkkala and his Software Studio students during the spring and summer of 2013 and was used as the primary advising tool in the Physics and Engineering Department last semester.
Unlike iGrad, My Taylor University Degree accesses the university's official database to track which courses students have completed. Kiers expects the Physics and Engineering Department to continue using iGrad until the four-year plan feature of My Taylor University Degree is fully functional.
My Taylor University Degree is available to all students and faculty, though due to FERPA requirements it will not be available to parents. Students and faculty included in pilot test groups have given enthusiastic feedback.
"It's awesome," said junior Kayla Gotha. "It's really convenient."The project has been in progress since January 2013 and has included extensive testing, pilot groups and training for advisors. The registrar's office is still working out details in the program's function and invites students to email registrar@taylor.edu with any errors they may discover in their audits.
